The present invention relates to a shroud for a firearm and, in particularly but not exclusively, to a shroud for an M2 machine gun.
The Browning M2 machine gun is a heavy machine gun that can be supported by a tripod or on a vessel or a vehicle. The M2 machine gun is now over 100 years old although the current design and its adaptability to current and evolving technologies has not changed. With the increase of hostilities globally the utilisation of the M2 machine gun has increased dramatically but the ability of modern armies to maintain an operational advantage in a low light/night environment is very difficult when deploying M2 machine guns.
Since the gun recoils heavily when fired, the M2 is provided with a shroud to manage axial movement of the barrel during recoil. A known shroud is shown in FIG. 0. It is also known to utilise the shroud for mounting devices thereto for supporting an accessory such as a torch or thermal device. US 2006/0288626 describes one way in which accessories may be attached to the shroud of an M2 machine gun. Here, a separate adapter is attached to and around an M2 machine gun shroud, the adapter being secured thereto with plugs that pass through lightening perforations provided in the shroud. Disadvantageously, the shroud of FIG. 0 is a poorly quality controlled cast part that cannot accurately be aligned with the barrel of the gun. As a result, the ability of the adapter when attached thereto to accurately align any equipment mounted thereto with the barrel of the gun is time consuming, difficult to conduct without tools and yields marginal results.
There is, therefore, a need to improve alignment between the shroud and any equipment mounted thereon with the machine gun barrel.
The present invention has been designed with the foregoing in mind.